DAE Capital, the aircraft leasing and financing division of Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE), as

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signed a contract for the purchase of 30 Airbus A350-900 and 70 Airbus A320 aircraft.

The contract follows a memorandum of understanding signed at the Dubai Air Show in November 2007. DAE Capital's parent company DAE is a fast developing global aerospace company with activities including airport development and operations, engineering, manufacturing and services.

"DAE Capital has built a business from ground-up and has made impressive progress since its launch," said DAE Capital's Chief Executive Officer Bob Genise.

"With our industry-experienced management team and well-defined road map, the company will become one of the top leasing companies globally."

"DAE's order is a tremendous endorsement of our aircraft products and in Airbus. We look forward to building on this partnership in the years to come," said Airbus' President and Chief Executive Officer Tom Enders.

DAE Capital stunned the industry with a 29 billion dollar move into the sector at last year's Dubai Air Show and already has 200 planes on order.

Meanwhile, US leasing company Aviation Capital Group (ACG) agreed to buy 23 single-aisle A320 aircraft worth 1.8 billion dollars.

ACG's Managing Director Stephen Hannahs said that increasing numbers of airlines are likely to turn to leasing in the next two years because of capital restraints and high cost of buying new fuel-efficient aircraft.

With this contract, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Pacific LifeCorp will have ordered 68 A320 family aircraft since March 2007 and will have 148 A320 family aircraft in its portfolio